Zynaptiq UNCHIRP

Codec Artifact Removal & Transient Retrieval

UNCHIRP is an advanced plug-in designed to eliminate bothersome artifacts commonly associated with lossy audio encoding and other FFT based processes like spectral de-noising.

With UNCHIRP, you can effectively reduce musical noise, suppress high-frequency chirping, correct transient smearing, and restore lost high frequencies in a single comprehensive solution. Whether you need to salvage poorly encoded music, enhance speech quality degraded by low bit rate uplink, refine over-processed audio material, or optimize consumer mobile device recordings, UNCHIRP is the ideal and exclusive tool to uplift your audio projects, adding contour and vibrance to already exceptional sound recordings.

The UNCHIRP features at a glance:

• Suppression of high frequency “chirping” artifacts.
• Reduction of “musical noise” artifacts.
• Transient Synthesis to augment or replace smeared, over-limited or otherwise compromised transients.
• Psycho-Acoustically optimized Treble Boost circuit with Enhance and Excite modes.
• Break-Point Curve Editor based frequency-dependent processing.
• Side-only algorithm mode for working with joint-stereo encoded material.
• HD algorithm mode for increased quality processing with higher CPU load (off-line processing recommended).
• SYNC parameter allows processing to be synchronized to signal transients for increasing clarity.
• Output limiter for unsupervised use in batch processing applications.
• Highly time-efficient workflow and UI.

The Problem

Both lossy codecs as well as many of today’s DSP processes (like de-noisers) make heavy use of a process called the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). This method has some major advantages. It also has some major drawbacks, which are the root cause for a variety of artifacts, such as Musical Noise, High Frequency Modulation (a.k.a. Chirping), Transient Smearing, and overall “blurring” due to low localization in the time domain. Because of the way human hearing works, these artifacts are very obvious and sound distinctly unnatural. Additionally, lossy codecs and de-noisers often cause a loss of high frequencies, further degrading your audio. UNCHIRP is the medicine for all of these artifact types.

Pitchmap

Two Is More Than One

• UNCHIRP identifies the birdies, and applies proprietary processing to make them disappear. It offers two different, simultaneously available algorithms to achieve this, Musical Noise Reduction and Dechirping, each featuring its own technological approach, unique sonic properties and its own breakpoint curve editor for frequency dependent processing. At Zynaptiq, we like over-delivering.

Snap!

• Like our award-winning de-reverberator UNVEIL, UNCHIRP allows bypassing transients for natural sounding results even with extreme settings. But we didn’t stop there – we’ve added frequency dependency to the bypass threshold, and frequency dependent transient attenuation/boost. The new Transient Synthesis can replace transients compromised by FFT processing such as lossy encoding, or by excessive dynamics processing. Finally, the Sync function synchronizes processing to the signal’s transients, adding overal clarity and coherence. These algorithms work equally well for fixing problem material as well as for augmenting already great sounding recordings, adding impact, detail and contour. It’s like pulling a curtain aside. Try it, you’ll love it.

The Shining

• And then, there’s Treble Boost, which deals with the fact that low bit rate encoded audio may show a “dead band” in the treble range – there’s simply a hard-limit to what any given bit rate can capture in terms of frequency. Regular EQ won’t help because there’s nothing to boost. The Treble Boost circuit offers two ways to recover some of that treble: a psycho-acoustically optimized Enhancer – equalization that is tailored in such a way that it implies frequency content in the dead band to the listener – and an Exciter, which synthesizes new harmonics to “fill the gap”. These sound so good that you may end up turning to these for your treble processing in general – even with already great sounding signals – to add shine and vibrance to your audio.

Supraluminal

• As time is the most scarce of resources, at Zynaptiq we’re obsessed with saving it for you. UNCHIRP sports a variety of workflow features to help you get results faster than light. There’s an output limiter to allow for unsupervised batch-processing without overs, an I/O difference function to quickly hear what exactly you’re removing, frequency dependent processing for all key parameters using breakpoint curves with snap-to-zero and copy/paste functionality, and our preset manager that writes presets that you can then use across all platforms and formats. Start using UNCHIRP and go ahead and book another week of holidays.